THERE IS ONE
Jeremiah 33:14-16
FIRST THESSALONIANS 3: 9-13
December 2, 2018
“Holy, holy, holy. Merciful and Mighty. God in Three Persons Blessed Trinity.”
We enter Advent accepting and recognizing that God is part of who we are. … that to deny God is to deny the reality of the universe that is around us. God … powerful. God … loving. God caring. My friends there is only ONE … there is God and the issue of the day is how far we allow ourselves to separate who we are from the ONE.
Are you apart from the ONE who created the heavens and the earth? Are you separated from the ONE whose love is so intense that Jesus came … Emmanuel; to live amongst us clearly teaching what life for believers is all about but as those of us at the Sight and Sound theater were reminded of yesterday God sent Jesus to be the ultimate sacrifice wrapped in love who would take away the sins of the world if …. If we only believe and repent. Do you believe? Do you live as one who believes? Have you chosen to deny the gifts and creativity the ONE has blessed you with to help you take on not only life’s challenges but to actively live for God extending your faith to others? Or is Christ’s Light shining on all whom you meet?
And, today … this very morning my friends … do you anxiously anticipate taking that piece of bread and tasting the juice of the grape knowing that you are sharing in the miraculous meal … yes in all its simplicity a meal wrapped up in complexities because it is a blessed meal; a tasting connected in faith to energize us once again to be the Light of God’s Son Jesus in the world that our ONE God created.
I cannot read your minds … I do not have the ability to journey with you as you pray, as you read God’s Word, and as you use the power of God’s creative Holy Spirit to touch other lives. But, I know myself. I know who I am and I know that as another year takes the high speed line to its conclusion I once again have this desperate need to get closer to the ONE who brought my into this life … the One who told the Prophet Jeremiah “I will come for you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back home to me. FOR I KNOW THE PLANS I HAVE FOR YOU declared the Lord. THEY ARE PLANS for PEACE, NOT DISASTER, TO GIVE YOU A FUTURE FILLED WITH HOPE. WHEN YOU CALL ME and PRAY TO ME, I WILL LISTEN TO YOU. WHEN YOU SEARCH FOR ME, YES SEARCH FOR ME WITH ALL of YOUR HEART, YOU WILL FIND ME, I WILL BE PRESENT FOR YOU, declares THE LORD and I will BRING YOU HOME.”
Church, are you searching for God today? With all of your heart? Is the Spirit of the Lord upon you so that you are reaching out to the ONE because God will listen … when you invest the effort God will allow you to find God. In the gift of your individual creativity … you can and need to find God so that your days ahead can experience the future with hope that God has promised. Your path not mine … you just like me together we need to be connected with the plans the ONE GOD has for us individually. We are desperate for the hope that is found in ADVENT; the hope knowing we have a Savior but that we have a time clock limiting our Jesus To fit into our parameters; a show with plenty of intermission time but today … this very morning when you come to the table of love will you be silently singing HOLY HOLY HOLY, LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, EARLY IN THE MORNING MY SONG SHALL RISE TO THEE?
The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. If … now, this is what we believe and I can look across this gathering to be comfortable if I had to give testimony in a court of law. Just as I did at the Planning Board meeting this past Monday night when I had to state my testimony was true I am confident that I could state that the people of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church of West Deptford hold that the ONE God of the universe is the people’s LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. But, if an attorney began to question me about the investment in God’s Scripture that is made by those attending … give testimony of knowing that all who would call a God to be their LORD GOD ALMIGHTY are actively valuing an ongoing growth in their knowledge of what the expectations and teachings of the ONE they worship and love with all their hearts, souls, and mind I would have to defer because only each person knows …. Only you know if God means that much.
Together we have entered Advent; a season not to be worried about whether or not someone says Merry Christmas in the grocery store line but to truly be concerned about our personal relationship with Jesus the Christ; the Prince of Peace … “The time is coming declares the Lord when I will fulfill my gracious promise. In those days my people will be saved and live in safety. I will raise up a righteous branch and He will be called THE LORD IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
Our hope is in the Lord … our reality comes from God … our Salvation is the direct gift of God but how close are you to knowing that God is there in all the moments which will allow you to live for God and to be complete discovering whatever it is you still need for your faith? For your life? To come to understand the future God has planned?
Paul wrote the church in Corinth reminding them of Creator God’s gifts to humanity. Spiritual gifts; gifts that thrive through an unleashed Spirit of God in the lives of believers. Gifts my friends … unique gifts that on this first day of the Hanukkah season we each are blessed to have. Paul writes, “There are different kinds of gifts but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working but the same God works all of them in God’s people. Each is given a gift for the common good. Sharing words of wisdom, knowledge, healing, caring for others’ spirits, leadership skills, the ability to help others, performance of miracles, and more.” “All these things, Paul writes, “are produced by the same Spirit who gives what he wants to each person. Eagerly desire the greater gifts.” And, then Paul shares the “love chapter” First Corinthians 13 that begins with “And, now I will show you the most excellent way …”
Our hope … our God … our Salvation is wrapped up in love. God’s love; Jesus love sacrifice; the Holy Spirit’s love and our ability to return that love not just to God as Jesus commanded but to all of our neighbors. This Advent season … to get closer to God I believe we need to get closer to the love God gives us individually. To rediscover our gifts that are on hand to take on God’s work. Our creative life; created by God in the One’s future plans for us … a future with hope.
There is a quote that I hold to be valid in a number of circumstances, “To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” And, I truly believe that is where people of faith fall short … we want to fit into a pattern or we want to deny what we sense where we think God is calling us because our thoughts or our actions may be viewed by others as being just wrong. And, when we are wrong it’s like failing a test so its better not to take the test if no one is making us.
But, here in Advent God has a test before us … to go into the world for THE ONE and make disciples in every corner to transform the world. If we deny the creative self and the gifts God has given to us then we are not willing to accept the CREATOR’s power and that allows us to slip away little by little from God. Think about it … if you don’t practice your faith but just wear the jersey and hat that says JESUS (They were on sale yesterday in Lancaster by the way.) are you really ready to get on the field to play?
It’s easy to say you don’t have the creative gifts to be a speaker … you don’t have what it takes to be a writer but I truly believe we each know the creative life God wants us to live for God; we know our gifts. Those God created gifts given for the good of the Kingdom of God but are you willing to lose your fear of being wrong so that you can live that creative life?
As we prepare to take in the meal on the Lord’s Table I will argue that if we finish this year off by deliberately taking new steps or renewing old ones to get closer and closer to the CREATOR we will rediscover the gifts God has given us … not those under a tree but those within our very souls. Creative gifts … unique gifts that will renew your God connection because when put together with other believers great things can happen. Creative gifts that will unleash your faith and when your faith is activated I truly believe that we discover our personal hope that we received when Jesus first came into our lives.
One in the family of Christ … One challenged by God’s Holy Spirit to use what God has given to us to make a difference in the world. The ADVENT season puts us on a timely journey of reflection as one year ends and an opportunity to glimpse into the future. What is your creative recovery that is awaiting you in your walk with God; a rediscovery that will allow you not only to do great things but that peace of Christ will take away your anxious and fearful moments knowing you are invested in the ONE because God the Creator already invested in you and in me and in all of our neighbors whom we are called to love.
My prayer for each of you today is the same one Paul wrote of in our lesson of the day: “May our God and our Lord Jesus guide you; may the Lord cause you to increase and enrich your love for each other and for everyone in the same way as I love you. May the love cause your hearts to be strengthened and to be blameless in holiness before God.”
“Holy, Holy, Holy. Lord God Almighty. All thy works shall praise they name in earth and sea.”
Allow the Advent season’s days and weeks to provide you the path to get closer to the ONE and live the creative life for God whose love has blessed you with the ability to do great things. God has a future with hope for each and every one of you.
AMEN
Watch a video of today’s worship service: